1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates a method and apparatus for isolating and controlling fluid flow within a zone of a subterranean formation.
2. Description of Related Art
In hydrocarbon production, it is frequently desirable to select which zone of the wellbore is to be opened for production or to stimulate one or more zones of the well to increase production of that zone from time to time. One current method of stimulating a portion of the well is through the use of hydraulic fracturing or fracing. During fracing, it that is necessary to isolate all other zones and to hydraulically couple the desired zone to the interior of a production string to enable the producing string to provide fracing material to be the desired zone.
One conventional method of opening a fracing valve within a production string is through the use of a blocking body drop to a stop which causes a pressure build up within the desired zone thereby opening the valve. One problems with such methods is that the dropped blocking body may be frequently required to be retrived or milled from the production bore before subsequent production may begin through the production string.